October 19, 1927 WHAT I THINK OF ELMANISM is a big, vital, signifi cant contribution to the mental life of America. I have the deep conviction that it is going to strike at the very roots of individual failure, for I see n it a new power, a great driving force. - I first heard of Pelmanism while in England on war work. Sooner or later most every conversation touched on it, or the movement seemed to have the weep of a religious conviction. Men and romen of every class and circumstance *ere acclaiming it as a new departure in jental training that gave promise of end1g that preventable inefficiency which cts as a brake on human progress. Even 1 France I did not escape the word, for ousands of officers and men were Pelanizing in order to fit themselves for turn to civil life. When I learned that Pelmanism had en brought to America by Americans r Americans, I was among the first to roll. My reasons were two: first, beuse I have always felt that every mind eded regular, systematic and scientific ercise, and, secondly, because I wanted find out if Pelmanism was the thing at I could recommend to the hundreds 10 continually ask my advice in relation their lives, problems and ambitions. Failure is a sad word in any language, t it is peculiarly tragic in America, ere institutions and resources join to t success within the reach of every inidual. In the twenty years that I have on the bench of the Juvenile Court of aver, almost every variety of human lure has passed before me in melanly procession. By failure I do not an the merely criminal mistakes of the ividual, but the faults of training that pa life from full development and aplete expression. Pelmanism the Answer is to these needs and these lacks that nanism comes as an answer. The elve little gray books" are a remarkable evement. Not only do they contain the overies that science knows about the d and its workings, but the treatment > simple that the truths may be grasped nyone of average education. ⚫ plain words, what Pelmanism has is to take psychology out of the coland put it into harness for the day's It lifts great, helpful truths out of back water and plants them in the g stream. a matter of fact, Pelmanism ought to e beginning of education instead of a ady for its faults. First of all, it zes the science of self-realization; it the student discover himself; it ac JUDGE BEN B. LINDSEY Judge Ben B. Lindsey is known throughout the whole civilized world for his work in the Juvenile Court of Denver. He says, "The [human mind is not an automatic device. It will not 'take care of itself.' Will power, originality, decision, resourcefulness, imagination, initiative, courage-these things are not gifts but results. Every one of these qualities can be developed by effort, just as muscles can be developed by exercise." quaints him with his sleeping powers and shows him how to develop them. The method is exercise, not of the haphazard sort, but a steady, increasing kind that brings each hidden power to full strength without strain or break. Pelmanism's Large Return The human mind is not an automatic device. It will not "take care of itself." Will power, originality, decision, resourcefulness, imagination, initiative, couragethese things are not gifts but results. Every one of these qualities can be developed by effort just as muscles can be developed by exercise. I do not mean by this that the individual can add to the brains that God gave him, but he can learn to make use of the brains that he has instead of letting them fall into flabbiness through disuse. Other methods and systems that I have examined, while realizing the value of mental exercise, have made the mistake of limiting their efforts to the development of some single sense. What Pelmanism does is to consider the mind as a whole and treat it as a whole. It goes in for mental team play, training the mind as a unity. Its big value, however, is the instructional note. Each lesson is accompanied by a work sheet that is really a progress sheet. 215 7: As Judge Lindsey has pointed out, Pelmanism is neither an experiment nor a theory. For almost a quarter of a century, it has been showing men and women how to lead happy, successful, well rounded lives. 650,000 Pelmanists in every country on the globe are the guarantee of what Pelman training can do for you. No matter what your own particular difficulties are poor memory, mind wandering, indecision, timidity, nervousness or lack of personality-Pelmanism will show you the way to correct and overcome them. And on the positive side, it will uncover and develop qualities which you never dreamed existed in you. It will be of direct, tangible value to you in your business and social life. In the files at the Pelman Institute of America are hundreds of letters from successful Pelmanists telling how they doubled, trebled and even quadrupled their salaries thanks to Pelman training. I N the old days of "Puck" there were a great many pictures, usually by Opper, of the actor parading the Rialto or Broadway. He wore a rusty tall hat, and a long overcoat with shabby astrakhan at the collar and cuffs. His face was gaunt and his chin not recently shaven, but he carried himself with a magnificent strut. This, because he had "once played with Booth." He was very contemptuous toward folk whom he called "low-down variety fakers." If this person ever existed, he is practically extinct today. Opper's drawings were, of course, largely caricature, or at best he dealt with the ham actor who was himself something of a faker, like the leading character in Mr. Marc Connolly's recent play "The Wild Man of Borneo." The great and really successful actors have usually fought their way up from the humblest beginnings, and are sympathetic toward all their brother and sister entertainers, whether they paint their faces white and amuse circus audiences, shoot glass balls from horseback, or appear in charge of a troupe of trained seals. The famous star who has written one of the books mentioned here today would be the last person to object to a discussion, on the same page, of a book about the circus and another one describing the lives of variety actors in a cheap boarding-house. Indeed, Mr. Wallace Smith in "Are You Decent?" illustrates this exact point in the story about the great Shakespearean actor who chums readily and affectionately with his old fellow-troupers but is himself snubbed by the third-rate legitimate actor who declines his offer to appear in Shakespeare for the movies. The circus might be classed, snobbishly, as the lowest form of the three kinds of entertainment represented in these books. Few of us nowadays make any such classification, or find it necessary to invent a small boy as an excuse for going to the big show. That the That the circus is a good subject for writers of books, whether fact or fiction, is perfectly well recognized. Jim Tully's "Circus Parade" is one of the best of these books; many readers would not qualify that statement at all. Its type was long ago described by some polished critic, like Andrew Lang, as "good although strong." I suspect that Mr. Tully and his more unrestrained admirers would feel some contempt for critics from Oxford like Andrew Lang, Vodvil and Legit By EDMUND PEARSON Books Mentioned in Circus Parade. By Jim Tully. Albert & But Is It Art? By Percy Hammond. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y. $2.50. Up the Years from Bloomsbury. By George Arliss. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $4. "Are You Decent?" By Wallace Smith. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $2.50. but I cannot help thinking that "Circus Parade" would have been a better book if the rough stuff were not inserted in such lumps. The stories at their best are very, very good. Take "The Strong Woman"-the pitiful tragedy of one of the circus performers billed as "The Female Hercules." She weighed four hundred pounds and could wring the neck of the average man with ease. Her heart, however, was a mush of sentimentality and an easy prey for the rascal who swindled her out of her earnings by pretending that he was going to marry her. It is trite praise, but I hardly see how Maupassant could have improved this story; indeed, it recalls, in some way, his "Boule de Suif." In other stories Mr. Tully heaps on the brutality. "A Negro Girl" and "The Last Day" are powerful yarns; by over-emphasis the author failed to convince me that they are true as fact or as art. Even at this late day, I should like to agree with the Committee for the Suppression of Irresponsible Censorship (although I am glad I do not have to make out checks to it) in its protest at the suppression of "Circus Parade" in Boston. Not that my heart aches for Mr. Tully, who knew well the risk he was taking when he wrote certain passages, and who has profited financially by the local suppression. But I am sorry for Boston with its sweeping literary censorship exercised by policemen. The title of Mr. Smith's "Are You Decent?" is taken from the traditional formality of the world back-stage. It is the inquiry of the visitor who asks if the one inside is sufficiently clad to receive a caller. The stories are about life in Mrs. Fisher's boarding-house, which is "strictly for the profession." Many readers will instantly recall some earlier books (I said earlier, not better, Brutus) on this hilarious subject. They are "At the Actors' Boarding House" and "The Maison de Shine," by Helen Green. Mrs. Fisher's house was one in which the knife and ax thrower might be con versing on serious topics in the parlor with the decayed actor who was faithful to the traditions of Irving and Barrett while from below in the cellar came the fishy barks of Sawtelle's trained seals There can hardly be anything better than the story of "The Snake's Wife"of course, you know that a Snake is human contortionist. In this tale the great actor, Eric Doberman, return from his triumphs in London as Hamlet to visit his old friends of simpler days As he is described as a member of famous family of actors, many reader will insist on identifying him with the latest American to play Hamlet in Lon don. To the boarders at Mrs. Fisher however, he is still "Wormy" Dober man, as in the old days, and they explai his desertion of the variety stage by th fact that they supposed somebody ha to be playing this "here Shakespeare. The great tragedian makes an attem to dance a shuffle to see if he has in proved at all, while the expert, Edd Dean, looks on and criticises. "How am I, Eddie?" asked Dobe man. "You're lousy," said the real hoofer "If I wasn't," said Wormy, ruefu "I wouldn't be playing Shakespeare. Mr. Percy Hammond's "But-Is Art?" is a collection of brief essays ab the stage by the dramatic critic of New York "Herald Tribune." Hammond cannot write a dull line a his sense of humor is nearly perfect. would not miss reading what he has say about a new play, and I would think of following his advice with seeing what some of the more hop observers have thought of the show. I followed Mr. Hammond slavishly should never go to the theatre at all, he is profoundly depressed and cyn about the stage. His hatred of whole business of the playhouse is as markable as the good nature and hu which never fails in his writing. At last we come to the legitimate a in Mr. Arliss's autobiography, "Up Years from Bloomsbury." Looking its chapters brings up the pleasant r lection that I have seen Mr. Arlis "Old English," "The Green Godd "Poldikin," "Alexander Hamilt "Disraeli," as well as some of his when he was with Mrs. Fiske in "B Sharp" and "Rosmersholm." I m him as the War Minister in "The ling of the Gods," as "The Devil," (Continued on page 221) The editors believe that no view of rrent affairs is complete that does not clude some account of these things. In very real sense, the window displays of fth Avenue and Main Street reflect the e of the American people. They are much "news" as the columns of the ily paper. Here are things we are all terested in, that we are all talking out-that we buy, eventually, because ey fill an interest, a need in us. Cernly they are as much a part of our es as the baseball scores, the political uation, the latest hold-up. Our advertising pages present some of ese things; but necessarily, since an vertisement is an appeal to buy, it presents the seller's point of view. ese notes will represent the buyer's. d they will not confine themselves to icles advertised in these columns. rein the man Emerson mentionso built a better mousetrap than any e else will find his trap described, ether he advertises with us or not. rein will be a record of America's Togress toward beauty and utility. A MERICA and France have their eternal flames which by their. clear light keep alive the memory of the sacrifice of the war dead. It is less commonly known that in England a daily ceremony similarly pays tribute to sacrificed manhood. Every morning at eleven o'clock a solemn ceremony is performed in Canterbury Cathedral. A selected recruit from a depot of the Buffs, East Kent Regiment, at Canterbury, goes to the Warrior's Chapel in the Cathedral, where rests the "Book of Life." This book contains the names of the men of the regiment who lost their lives in the war, and the young soldier reverently turns over a fresh page each day. Referring to the "Book of Life" at a special memorial service in the Cathedral, the Dean of Canterbury said recently: "It is a very beautiful and a deeply cherished possession, and we in the Cathedral welcome with all our hearts this daily turning over of a fresh page in that 'Book of Life' by a picked recruit from the Buffs' Depot." W THERE can you get the same un- degree of safety and the same Our first consideration is the Smith Bonds are Safe First Ask for Booklet "6-45" No matter where you may be you The F. H.SMITH CO. Founded 1873 Smith Building, Washington, D. C. Kindly send booklet and information regarding SMITH BONDS. 217 T Speaking of Books HE literary department of The Outlook begins in the next number to follow a new plan. There are numerous admirable reviews in this country devoted largely to the criticism of new and forthcoming books. There are half as many reviewers as books, twice as many reviewers as writers. Too many of us who cannot write books write critically about them. People who do not read many books are already sufficiently encouraged to read these criticisms. We do not propose to enter the field of the critical review. We do not aspire to act as cultural mentor, to patronize and lead, to hound the fatigued into intellectual exercise or bully the simple into sophistication. In this new literary page we expect to discuss only the most interesting of those books which people everywhere are buying and reading; allowing our own prejudices only their inevitable leeway. With the co-operation of our leading book-stores from Boston to San Francisco, we shall publish weekly lists of the best-selling books-whether light fiction, biography, or novels and comment upon those books, not from the critic's point of view, but from the ordinary reader's. A NEW LITERARY DEPARTURE With the aid of these lists we hope to investigate the taste of the reading public and the ways in which writers are meeting that taste. We shall try to present an intelligent guide to the books which people are reading and talking about. about. In addition, we shall indicate sufficiently the character of these books as a help to you in making your own selection. Where books contain ideas worth discussing at length we shall continue to print articles about them by writers competent to discuss the subject. But, above all, we shall assume that all the books which are bought are read, and read with pleasure. Every one who has talked about books around a fire has been disheartened to find that he and his friend cannot agree as to what makes a book worth reading. We believe that any book is worth reading which gives pleasure to the reader. Pleasure lies in the satisfaction of tastes, and is unarguable; taste in reading, taste in drinking, taste in salvation. And pleasures are as varied as the days are long. You may read for recreation at one time, and for mental exercise at another, and you are in both cases reading for pleasure. And you may choose Sherwood Anderson for the first and "Social The Book Table Italy in the Thirteenth Century" for the second, and I may reverse the order to get the same result. We shall not quarrel with your choice. We shall simply make research into it, and help you to such books as may satisfy it. You read for delight, and so you should. Any book which gives you an interval of escape from loneliness; which solves a rid dle to suit you, or provides a new one to engage; which offers in tears or laughter, in limbering gymnastics for the mind, or in the placid charm of ambling words one hour's oblivion, one instant's exaltation, is a book needing no critical Amen to make it worth your while to read. Our aim will be simply to report to you and discuss with you the books which are affording this pleasure to the majority of people. The fine upstanding young man who studies the five-foot shelf and thereby gets culture and a job and his wife, who learns from ten min utes' daily reading how to hold the French buyer spellbound with her dis course on Baudelaire, are not the read ing public. Neither are the teachers no the book reviewers. The real question of books is between their writers and their readers. It is to these that we ad dress ourselves. FRANCES LAMONT ROBBINS. There is nothing of witchcraft in Mr. Richardson's rather deceptively named novel, "The Barbary Witch," but there is the full-length portrait, thoroughly studied and strikingly drawn, of a terrible woman who bears that nickname, ruthless, cunning, and more wicked than any witch, and sacrificing to her own. requirements every one brought within. reach of her devastating selfishness and malevolence. Her chief victim, her devoted daughter, is allowed a last-minute escape to happiness, fortunately for the reader's peace of mind, just before the story sweeps on with gathering intensity to the grim surprise of its fitly tragic ending. More Than Wife. By Margaret Widdemer. The Aristocratic Miss Brewster. By Joseph Her Closed Hands. By Putnam Weale. From Bismarck to the World War. A History of German Foreign Policy, 18701914. By Erich Brandenburg. Morrow's Word-Finder. A Living Guide to Modern Usage, Spelling, Synonyms, Pronunciation, Grammar, Word Origins, and Authorship, all in One Alphabetical Order. By Paul D. Hugon. Landmarks in Nineteenth-Century Painting. By Clive Bell. Thomas Love Peacock. By J. B. Priestly. Was Jesus Influenced by Buddhism? A Comparative Study of the Lives and Thoughts of Gautama and Jesus. By Dwight Goddard. What Tree Is That? By E. G. Cheyney. · Problems in Shakspere's Penmanship., Including a Study of the Poet's Will. By Samuel A. Tannenbaum, M.D. The Psychology of Murder. By Andreas of Richard Branch, engineer, and Silvi Hawthorne, architect, his wife, in so ad justing their married life as to allow fre and fair opportunity to the personalitie and careers of both without sacrificin the natural claims or natural self-respe of either. Neither husband nor wife selfish, and they love each other deepl but it takes time, patience, and exper ment to find the right way. Thoug their problem is seriously and intell gently considered and with some gener implications from the special case, it never allowed to swamp the characte of Richard and Silvia themselves, wh hold the reader's continuous interest a rather unusually charming pair young married people. THE DEEP END. By Patrick Miller. Har Brace & Co., New York. $2.50. Very modern, very studied, very ps chological, and a novel to make c elevate simplicity, by contrast, to t rank of the major virtues. The em tionally and intellectually bedeviled he egoistic, introspective, and inept in ha In "The Magnificent Ambersons" and The Turmoil" Mr. Tarkington preented phases of the development of a Mid-West city humanly and socially as well as industrially, a place which grew intil every man cried, "Give me of thyelf, O Bigness!" Now, under the title Growth," these two novels appear toether with a third story, "National wenue" (originally "The Midlander"). quote again. from his foreword, the hange from the "pleasant big town of eighborly people" has been toward "the od of all American hearts-Bigness.". et the stories themselves show that en in the "heaving, grimy city" there e kindliness, humor, and even aspiraon. The volume beyond doubt conins the author's strongest, if not most nusing, literary work. By IE ARISTOCRATIC MISS BREWSTER. Joseph Lincoln. D. Appleton & Co., New York. $2. Not even Mr. Lincoln can write thirty wels about Cape Cod life and people d have them all equally entertaining. ankly, the serious talk here seems dded. Whether Miss Brewster shall Le and shall keep a bookkeeper job is scussed as long and as solemnly as if e question were before the League of ations. But the non-aristocratic peo: in the book give us racy, smart, using talk as of yore. The Outlook for October 19, 1927 policy and the causes of the Great War. Professor Brandenburg is far from the attitude of the fiery Prussian Junker, and he is still far from understanding the attitude of most of the rest of the world. He admits that the Germans do not understand the psychology of other nations, and he illustrates this when he blames the German statesmen, not for invading Belgium, but for neglecting to prepare public opinion and finding a plausible excuse for doing it. Like his faithful followers in this country-Professor Barnes, for one-he has selected the two guilty men who above all others TELEGRAMC COMPANIES Company are the largest single body of stockholders in the world and they represent every vital activity in the nation's life, from laborer and unskilled worker to wealthy and influential executive. Although the telephone was one of the greatest inventions of an age of large fortunes, no one ever made a great fortune from it-in fact, there are not any "telephone fortunes." The Bell Telephone System is owned by the American people. It is operated in the interest of the telephone users. 219 "stand convicted" for having precipitated the war, and they are, of course, Poincaré and Iswolski. Language MORROW'S WORD-FINDER. A Living Guide to Modern Usage, Spelling, Synonyms, Pronunciation, Grammar, Word Origins, and Authorship, all in One Alphabetical Order. By Paul D. Hugon. William Morrow & Co., New York. $4. It may be used as a brief dictionary in the usual sense. It is also a dictionary of synonyms; it answers many questions about grammar and pronunciation, about punctuation, and other points which a writer of letters or of books may |